Got my son a cheap refurb dell pc on ebay from a big seller. It's been fine for 5 months then he plugged an mp3 player in and something happened. He lost the monitor signal, can't see anything on monitor when it boots up. How do you fix something you can't see :shocked:

Anyone know of reasonable place to fix this? Take this to the big box place and it'll be more to fix than what i paid for it.

Or trade fixing it for a fishing trip on my boat this year, striper, tuna, tog, fluke, whatever your fancy?

Are you sure its the Monitor signal and not the monitor....could be that the monitor is shot. Try a different Monitor 1st.

Yeah tried it on another monitor, nothing came up on the screen

Sounds like a strange coincidence. Very, very rarely a cheap USB cable with poor shielding or a short can cause other components to get fried. But I've only heard of this once because it happened to me and I heard the *zzzaaappp*.

I agree with TDF, try a different monitor first. I know you said you can't see anything when it boots - does that mean nothing at all shows on the screen from the moment you press the power button, or do you get a few screens right after pressing the power button then everything goes blank? If it's the latter, you have a driver issue.

One other thing, does the computer have a separate graphics card or is it integrated on the motherboard? If it is a separate card, try plugging into the integrated one.

Another thing to try is putting a different graphics card in. You also might want to change your profile w/ your location to see if anyone is nearby to make a house call.

Some of the crappier motherboards (Asus microATX) have sucky USB ports that are underpowered and the USB ports fry out if you put something on that sucks too much power, but that never affects video.

Nearly everything nowadays is disposable though...it's cheaper to heave it and buy a replacement :-P

Another thing to try is putting a different graphics card in. You also might want to change your profile w/ your location to see if anyone is nearby to make a house call.

That was going to be my next comment after he tried the above. Was hoping he was using a graphics card, and could just switch to using the integrated one.

You'd dead on about the crappy USB ports.

Absolutely nothing comes up on the screen when i go to boot it.

I live in Northern RI, didn't even realize I had no location ,duh

I think it's all on board, I don't see any seperate cards, but then again I don't poke around inside these too much. heres some pics.

It's onboard. MicroATX motherboard. One PCI-express slot it looks like. You'd need to swap in a spare PCI-express graphics card or try to hit the Delete key while booting (does it make a beep noise when you turn it on?)

Nah, no beeps on powerup. If I can find a graphics card, I just throw it one of the slots beside the ram and try booting up?

The card goes in that green slot at the bottom of the board (the top most green slot in your second picture). Those slots next to the RAM are only if you wanted to add more RAM.

I would try to borrow one from another PC. I'd hate for you to buy one, just to find out it doesn't resolve the problem. Now I'm kicking myself in the ass for getting rid of my old graphics card as I'm just on the other side of the MA/RI line from you.

ok, thanks I'll see if I can borrow a card from someone and try it

If there's no bootup beep, it's probably fried (the beeps are diagnostics in case it can't display anything). Just don't be too disappointed if a video card doesn't show anything either :-(

If you feel like taking a ride to new bedford next weekend I can take a look, i have spare parts for diiagnosing it.

If you feel like taking a ride to new bedford next weekend I can take a look, i have spare parts for diiagnosing it.

thanks Crash ,sounds like a perfect excuse to get me near CMS.


I have an old Emachine that has some parts .

Get in touch with you next week.

What model is it?
Looks like some I have had at work. The GX270s had a terrible problem with bursting capacitors. If any of them look swelled up that could be it. On some of the GX280s the motherboard just "went" and dell had to replace them. Your problem sounds just like what we experienced at the office. I lost a few but another agency I work with lost over 100 of the gx270s. If it is one of these models, your mother board may be shot. No beeps at all? Does the hard drive light look like it is trying to boot up?

I'm not sure of the model. I got it on ebay and the listing is over so I can't go back and look at it. It was from this guy, kinda like this one, he sells alot of them

http://cgi.ebay.com/1-FAST-DELL-PC-P4-2-8-GHZ-DESKTOP-COMPUTER-WIN-XP-2-PRO_W0QQitemZ370151836594QQihZ024QQcategoryZ179QQc mdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1742.m153.l1262

I'll see if I see model number or anything on it tonight.

No beeps, not sure on light. How much is motherboard to replace?

Try re-seating the memory and the prcessor as well as all the cables.

And By re-seating I mean to re-move them completely and plug them back in.

see if that helps.

if that doesn't then just unplug all the drive cables from the board and try booting it up. You should get something on the screen just by booting to the bios.

If you don't more than likely the Motherboard is fried...even if you have a bad video card the MB should still produce some post beeps.

Eric, you are right on, that definately looks like the infamous GX270. We replaced the motherboards on over 800 of them where I work, it is caused by Dell saving some $ and going with a cheaper capacitor manufacturer and the tolerances were not to spec and many of them were overfilled with cooling oil, and they swell frying the board. The capacitors in question are 3 or 4 of the larger capacitors (small round things about 3/16" diameter and 1/4" tall. they should be flat on the top, if you look closely at yours you I bet you will find they are rounded on top due to swelling. Its hard to tell from the pictures, but on the second picture, on the right hand side where the 4 yellow and black wires plug in, the capacitor to the left of these wires looks swollen. If any of these capacitors are swollen it is fried. Occasionally these capacitors will take the power supply with it. These mother boards are relatively cheap, same for the power supplies. They are not that hard to replace either (maybe 10 min). I used to have a few laying around the shop, I'll check around and see if I have one. I am sure I have at least a power supply. The chance this was caused by using an mp3 is almost impossible. I'll get back with you if I have a mother board. Post back on here if you can see any of those capacitors that are swollen.

Cool Beans
Newport, RI

When I looked at the ebay page I can see that it is a GX-280. very similar motherboard, but we did not have as many of these go bad, but some did. But, more than likely he used the cheaper GX-270 motherboard when he refurbished this pc, as it is interchangeable and will fit in any of the GX-260, 270 or 280 models.

Cool Beans

Like I said, I'm not sure of model no. I just picked an active auction he has. If I bought a new motherboard, did they fix the problem or will it be another timebomb?
How can I be sure which board is in there? Is there a model no on the board?

I'll look tonight at the caps

Got my son a cheap refurb dell pc on ebay from a big seller. ?


what was cheap? and where do you live?

Its a Gx 270. One of the caps seems domed at the top. The others seem fine thou.The switch light is on but not sure if thats the harddrive light. it isnt flashing and i dont see another hard drive light. When I hit switch fan comes on and hear stuff like its running but no beeps. Maybe its just the fan I hear.

Toasted cap, see the picture. Dell did a recall that ended about a year ago, like many I've replaced my share. If he doesn't mind a full tower I have an opti gx270 with other issues that we can populate with your HD and RAM.

Did he mention his PC shutting down randomly? That was the first sign for most of my users.

Toasted cap, see the picture. Dell did a recall that ended about a year ago, like many I've replaced my share. If he doesn't mind a full tower I have an opti gx270 with other issues that we can populate with your HD and RAM.

yeah thats the one thats domed.

He's a teenager, he just wants one that runs! Sounds like we could mix and match.

He said this was the 1st problem he saw.

yep......just backing up what's already been said, I used to run Dell Service calls and that was the most common issue with that model. I'm surprised it failed on you that quickly...normally I'd find a few capacitors domed before it went and sometimes seen them run with erupted capacitors....some of my clients even used them as servers...:bsod:

Pretty easy to swap out if it comes on the sled...8 additional minutes w/o sled :D

all set, thanks for helping me out crash!

I hadn't checked back in a few days, but it looks like you got your issue worked out. When I saw the back of the pc and your symptoms it just sounded like the old 270 problem...It really stinks that they are cutting so many corners these days to stay super cheap. I moved on from dell at the office in 2005 and bought micron pcs. Out of probably 50 microns we only had like 1 or 2 small problems compared to my over 100% failure rate with a batch of dell gx280s. Microns were all built and tested in the USA, and cost a little more, but saved tons of $$ in the long run with better reliability. Not sure if anyone saw it, but they just went under and took whatever was left of the gateway line they bought with them.

Other people I work with have still been having issues with whole batches of dells. The 755 models and others have been having power supply and motherboard issues. We've moved to mostly laptops and docking stations at the office. The laptops are more reliable from dell, but then you have the exploding batteries and overheating power supplies to always look for.

The GX260s were the last ones we had great luck with. I have bought a couple of those for parents and in laws lately off ebay and they have been really good. You can still get those cheap, just make sure to get one with more RAM.

There are some good deals on laptops on ebay now too. A 2 or 3 year old dell laptop can be had for cheap $$ and still has some life left in it. If you end up replacing that 270 a laptop may be good option for school etc.

I'm actually very happy with the new batches of dells. We have experienced to issues with our 755's, have about 200. I think any brand is going to have its issues, but my experience with HP has made me appericiate the way dell deals with its issues, at least for the corperate/educational users.

Those capacitor problems was almost universal - many vendors had major issues, especially monitors.. I got a couple tips from Booger and have had fair success resurecting some good monitors ;)